Monthly Archives: August 2013

AC 8201-8500 series hoppers – Part 1A: Ballast variation

Posted on by
Reply
S3600332.jpg

AC 8331 at Steelton Yard in 2004. Chris vanderHeide photo.

One interesting variation on these cars was a series of 10 cars, AC 8330-8339 that were rebuilt in the early 1990s with side-discharge gates suitable for ballast service.*

You can see the marks on the side of the car where the modified slope sheets have been welded to the sides, so you can see how the inside of the car peaks in the middle.

This would certainly be a neat variation to model, and an interesting kitbash, although this is several years outside of my modeling time frame of 1985.

Has anyone reading this blog ever modeled a similar sort of ballast service rebuild?

*I’ve seen video however from the early-mid 1990s of a couple of these rebuilds mixed right in with other hoppers on the branch train to Wawa/Michipicoten. It seems they were still used in regular service when not used for ballast service.

AC 8201-8500 series hoppers – Part 1: Background and Prototype Information

Posted on by
2

These big, forest-green 100-ton capacity rapid discharge hoppers were a distinctive sight on the Algoma Central; and at a total of 300 cars built to this design in 1974-75, formed the largest part of the Algoma Central’s hopper fleet during the 1980s. These cars replaced aging 55 to 70-ton twin hoppers that had build dates ranging around World War I.

ac8422detail2

Builder’s stencil on AC 8422. Blair Smith photo.

These 300 cars were built by National Steel Car of Hamilton, ON using a design licensed from Ortner Freight Car Co. of Cincinatti, OH. The cars were built and delivered in two batches:

ac8376

AC 8376. Blair Smith photo.

AC 8201-8400 built from January into April of 1974.

ac8451

AC 8451. Blair Smith photo.

AC 8401-8500 built from January to February of 1975.

Both series are visually identical except that the middle rib on all of the cars in the second batch was painted yellow. The significance of this is a little vague; it certainly did not indicate an assigned service, as all of the Algoma Central’s hopper cars mixed together freely, and the only hopper traffic the ACR handled was all related to the iron ore processing plant at Wawa (including hauling limestone, coke and other ore fines from the harbour at Michipicoten to Wawa), and shipping this output south to the Algoma Steel mill at Sault Ste. Marie.

IMG_6612

Stock Walthers “Platinum Line” Ortner hopper in AC lettering.

Fortunately, Walthers has produced a model of the Ortner design that NSC licensed, so modelling these cars is relatively straightforward, although there are some minor differences between the NSC and Ortner versions. (Of course.) Many of these are pretty minor, and most modelers may choose to ignore them, but I wanted to capture some of the signature flavour of these NSC clones. Also, as Walthers has these cars available in AC paint and lettering, some may wish to avoid repainting as much of the car as possible. (Unfortunately however there are some errors and deficiencies in the Walthers lettering; I’ll go over these in more detail when I discuss painting and lettering the models, but for now I will just mention that a decal set is available from Black Cat Decals that can be used to correct the lettering or fully repaint and re-letter the Walthers car.)

The main difference between the AC prototypes and the Walthers model is the most visible, and this is one that any serious AC modeler will really want to change. The Walthers model comes with a pair of solid bulkheads dividing the car into three separate bays, while the prototype cars were fully open like most standard hoppers with V-shaped tubular structural bracing in between the bays.

Other minor differences involve the handrails and the top cap of the end of the cars; this will be discussed in detail when I discuss how I model these changes in upcoming posts in this series.

That’s about it for the intro; coming up – modifying the interior of the cars.

Main Street Hawk Junction

Posted on by
4

Or, Hawk Junction, Then and Now: Part 2.

Inside the waiting room at the station at Hawk Junction, the employees have neat little almost museum type display with all sorts of photographs from the Hawk Junction and Wawa area, mostly taken by various locals. A couple of old photos showed the historic downtown of Hawk Junction, across the road from the station, around the 1970s or ’80s. (Can anyone identify makes or model years of vehicles in the photo below to at least identify a minimum date? I’m not really a car guy.)

IMG_5998

Downtown Hawk Junction. Probably taken from the top of the locomotive sanding tower. The station is just out of frame to the left.

IMG_5997

ESSO gas station (check out the antique pumps) and bowling alley (see sign above door)? Not sure about the white structure, probably a railway bunk house?

IMG_5996

Grocery store.

IMG_5989

Of the buildings in the street view only the general store (the building with the gas pumps in front in the earlier photo above) and the Big Bear Hotel remain today. The hotel has obviously seen better days.

IMG_5986

This small garage, across the street from the hotel is the former fire hall for the Hawk Junction volunteer FD. With the decline in population and volunteers, fire services are now apparently covered by the nearby Wawa Fire Department.

Hawk Junction Station Details

Posted on by
Reply

For the modelers, a series of walk-around detail shots of the station at Hawk Junction. For reference, Blair Smith once provided me the following footprint measurements for the station: one-storey wings each approx. 24’x20′, centre portion 24’x36′ feet (approximate overall footprint 24’x76′).

Beginning with the track side of the structure:

IMG_5993

The south wing of the structure contains the passenger waiting room.

IMG_5999

IMG_6001

IMG_6000

IMG_6003

IMG_6002

The north wing is the baggage room.

IMG_6011

This sign gives a pretty good indication of what types of baggage may be seen on the Algoma Central locals.

IMG_6010

Note the difference in ground elevation from the front to the rear of the station.

IMG_6007

The rear freight door to the baggage room has been boarded up. Watch your step coming out of the entry door to the right!

IMG_6006

Central portion. I don’t have access to any floor plans of this structure, but the lower window above the entry door suggests the location of a landing on the stairs to the second floor.

IMG_6009

Apparently this station even has a basement.

IMG_6005

Rear of the south wing (passenger waiting room).

Hawk Junction, Then and Now

Posted on by
1

A few weeks ago, I took a bit of a railfanning vacation to Northern Ontario, hitting the former Algoma Central, Huron Central and Ontario Northland. I planned part of my route to pass through Wawa and Hawk Junction on the way from Sault Ste. Marie up towards Cochrane on the Ontario Northland. This part of the trip was scheduled such as to catch the southbound regular passenger train from Hearst to Sault Ste. Marie. This train now runs on a three times a week schedule and boards near the shops at Steelton Yard rather than the downtown station at Sault Ste. Marie.

On arrival at Hawk, the first thing that struck me was how empty it was. Only a single empty pulpwood flatcar sat in the south yard in front of the station. The old enginehouse appears to be used by MOW crews now, as locomotives are no longer serviced at Hawk Junction.

IMG_6012

I arrived shortly before the train was scheduled to arrive at Hawk Junction, but typically it was running a little late. Shortly after I arrived I heard them giving track releases around mile 195 (near Franz). So I had my lunch while waiting, and walked around the station taking photos of the building and the area, since I plan to model this location someday. While waiting for the passenger train, a short (only 9 cars) freight arrived from the Sault and tied down on one of the yard tracks to await the passenger train’s arrival.

IMG_6023

Finally at about 1:30pm the passenger pulled into the station, loaded a trio of canoers and their gear and continued south:

IMG_6016

The full consist of this train was:
CN 106 (F40PH)
AC 312 (Baggage)
AC 5654 (Coach)

The F40PH was acquired in 2009 by CN from the Rio Grande Ski Train along with the coaches now used on the Agawa Canyon Tour Train. The baggage car and coach on this train are both ex-Amtrak cars acquired in 2007 with government assistance to upgrade the regular passenger service. The F40PH locomotives carry CN reporting marks over the numbers, but all of the passenger rolling stock carries AC numbers. Most however, do not actually indicate the Algoma Central name. The only car I saw in service that weekend with the actual Algoma Central name displayed was Diner 506 on the tour train. However at least one of the older ex-VIA/CN baggage cars and one ex-VIA/CN coach in the previous Algoma Central paint scheme were observed (from a distance) in front of the shops at Steelton yard, as well as private car Agawa which all proudly display the Algoma Central name.

After the passenger train departed, the crew of the freight reboarded and pulled past the Hawk Junction station to do some light switching:

IMG_6033

The freight would drop off the loaded pulpwood flatcar as well as the second unit which was apparently having some technical issues.

IMG_6058

After lifting the empty pulpwood flat that had been sitting there, the train continued north:

IMG_6056

Note the general emptiness of the above photo. In the background at left is visible the abandoned roadbed of the former Michipicoten subdivision to Wawa and Michipicoten. The large grassy area to the right is the former north yard, which was the main classification yard at Hawk Junction. Now most of those tracks have been torn out and the area is becoming overgrown by tall grass.

Now compare to these 1994 photos from Hawk Junction found online:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cklx/516522858/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cklx/5906307892/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cklx/746537965/

And a 1977 shot from Ted Ellis’s site showing the Hawk operator checking car numbers on an arriving ore train from the Michipicoten branch against a switch list:

http://algomacentral.railfan.net/images/AlgoCenRy/AC_Perry_Wilson_Hawk_5-21-1977.jpg

Today, even the trees on the north side of the station have recently been cut down.